Spiral Steps

Taken while on holiday at Lynmouth this staicase was on the side of the church. Gave it a bit of HDR.

just the right amount of HDR

This really is what the other thread about an editing time limit is all about.

I withdraw my comment above since it was made about a different image

Opinions on that may vary.

But I like the composition.

G

Any day now I am expecting Impotentspider to launch a missive about the amount of HDR that has been appearing recently

Love the composition, but I do not like the HDR effect here. Somehow it looks flat and perhaps a bit out of focus/noisy. Not sure - perhaps because it is so small. Could you upload a bigger version of it please.

It has now been enlarged, (i hope).

The light looks much better now!!



(I think a even bigger verison would give more.)

That's as large as i'm going.

It's fab.

As it downloaded, I experienced a very brief instant of vertigo, looking up at it, as one is.

Now that's impact

_________
Edit:

Although I don't like the blue border round the building at the top. What's causing that?

I'm obviously in a minority here...

To me, the sky looks as though it's been pasted in from a nother pic, and there's horrible colour fringing around the roof and orinwork against the sky. HDRs like this really do nothing for me, they just look flat (lacking contrast) but lurid at the same time.

But as I say, I'm in the minority Richard.

Actually, is the sky from a different pic? It looks as though clouds, and bits of railing, are missing. Didn't notice at the smaller sizes...

Dan

Yes the sky is from another pic and was added after the HDR . The original sky got burnt out, i was just experimenting i took three exposures from the same pic and then gave it a bit of HDR in Photomatix. I know that there is room for improvement i was just interested in what people though of it.

It's the imposing aspect that does it for me.

The rest isn't so relevant, although as Dan says, the fringing is unpleasant, and a metal staircase doesn't have to be blue to have impact.

Dan, how could you tell that the sky was fake? I hadn't noticed that.

The HDR here does nothing for me, I'm thinking the original may have more depth and texture. (Maybe those aren't the right words - it's hard for me to pinpoint what is bothering me about it)

Or the silent majority?

G

Chris,

Apart from the overall look of it, which could have been from the HDR process, where I often feel as though the sky's been pasted on, I was a bit unsure of the light source - the lighting on the clouds doesn't seem to match with the light on the building (direction-wise, although the flash may contribute to this).

But the dead giveaways were:




1. This looks like sky and cloud showing through the staircase, so this must have been pasted on.

2. There looks to be cloud missing from here, so perhaps some blue sky painted over this bit.

3. Although there may well be a bit of the railing missing here, it looks a bit too woolly to me, the edges should be crisper.


The pasting in of a sky (or any major element of a picture, such as, oh I don't know, a grassy bank seen through a railway carriage window :lol is fraught with danger, there are so many areas to consider to make it look natural. Specifically with pasting in skies, to look correct you need to ensure that the same focal length is used, at the same angle to the sun, and at the same angle to the horizon. Depends how precise you want to be about it, but that's my take on it.

Invariably something gets overlooked, and if it hasn't, it's taken far longer to create than it ever would by getting it right at the time of taking.

Obviously, conditions don't always allow for the shot you want to be taken when you're there. I'm much better now at just leaving that idea, and looking for something I can capture.

A few years back I was asked to photograph some visitor centres, and although the sun was out when I started off (at one end of Essex), by the time I'd reached the last one, the sky was just a washed out grey. I photoshopped it, but afterwards I realised I'd left a telltale sign - the sky through the windows in the 'tower' is lighter than the actual sky. But apart from that, the lighting on the building just doesn't fit with the blue sky, it's just too flat.




In that case it was a 'needs must' thing, and I'm sure it's fine for most people, but I know it's wrong and I avoid it wherever possible. And it took so long to do too.

Dan